Comfort Between Friends
by Viv1
Summary: Encapsulated in this moment between them was the essence of their friendship, the connection that had subsisted between them for so long. Lexana friendship.
1. Chapter 1

**Comfort Between Friends**

** By Viv **

_Description: "Encapsulated in this moment between them was the essence of their friendship, the connection that had subsisted between them for so long." (Lexana friendship)_

_Spoilers: None. Takes place between the end of Season 3 and beginning of Season 4._

_Rating: PG-13_

_Disclaimer: All characters on 'Smallville' that appear in this story are owned solely and exclusively by the WB, Al Gough, Miles Millar etc. I am not intending to profit from anything, okay?_

_Archive: Just let me know first._

_Author's notes: This story was inspired by "Everybody Hurts", by REM._

_Also, Season 4 has only just begun to screen in Australia, so if there are any contradictions to canon, please let me know – or ignore!_

* * *

Her best friend Chloe was dead. Clark, someone who she deeply cared about, despite everything was missing, last seen in the vicinity of the caves. Jonathan Kent lay hopelessly brain dead in Smallville General, his grip on life as tenuous as his family's hope for his survival. Lex, her sometime business partner and trusted friend had almost died at the hands of his relentlessly evil father, who now was deservedly bars serving several concurrent life sentences. Only a highly dangerous and experimental treatment put forward by a German specialist and adapted by a brash young American doctor at Metropolis General had snatched him from the jaws of death.

And she? What was Lana Lang doing in the midst of this crisis? She was in Paris, the most romantic city in the world.

Shivers coursed down her spine; her breath came in short, sharp gasps. Hands that had already begun trembling at the sound of his obviously weak voice now shook too harshly to grasp anything, let alone a cordless telephone too impossibly sleek to be really useful to begin with.

After the first incident (murder? death? Even now she couldn't bring herself to face the reality of the situation), she had felt the numbness setting in. Sadly, it was an all too familiar feeling. She had cried, wept, sobbed uncontrollably even, at the news of Chloe and Gabe Sullivan's deaths, but she could feel a part of herself already hardening to ward out the inevitability of the pain and torment that would follow in the aftermath of the tragedies. Not just Chloe's death, but the cruel and decisive way in which she had so unwittingly given her life and her father's. The remnants of the Sullivan family had been brushed aside by Lionel Luthor as easily as he would have batted away a fly, and with just as little effort.

Lana knew that if she didn't let go quickly, she'd come to be consumed by it. Obsessed, with no possibility of satiating her desire to wade in Lionel Luthor's blood, to see him blazing in a fire of eternal torment like he had plunged so many other lives.

And then had come news of Clark Kent. she still thought of him as her Clark even though things between them had disintegrated with such rapid ease in the last few months. She found it hard to believe that her Clark had gone missing, doubly inexplicable given his father's seemingly hopeless condition. The Clark she knew would never have left his mother shouldering the burden alone; the Clark she knew would have given anything in the world to be by her side. The fact that he was missing meant only one thing – that the Clark she knew was gone from this world.

And then Lex. Lex whom she had openly despised from the first time she had accidentally walked in on one of his nocturnal outings with his girl du jour – Lex whom she had actually come to care about almost as much as her other, closer companions of childhood – Lex had been poisoned. The doctors at Metropolis General had told her that his chances of survival were less than 1 - and that was hopeful at best.

She had prepared herself then. What else was a girl in Paris to do?

"Lex." She grasped, her fumbling mind only just now overcoming the shock at hearing his voice. She could hear the slightly uneven breathing down the line; the connection was too crystal clear for him to hide anything.

"Lana." His voice came out in a curious half gasp, half wheeze. He sounded – and she couldn't emphasise this enough – terrible. "How are you?"

"How am _I_? How are you? In case you've forgotten, you're the one that was nearly poisoned to death, remember?"

Weak laughter, then a slight cough. "I concede the poison might have tampered with my memory a little, but as far as I know you're still in Paris, starting a new life for yourself. Couldn't have been easy …" Some more wheezing from Lex, then the sounds of a some kind of breathing apparatus whirling into life. Lana grimaced at the thought of the pain Lex was going through. "It couldn't have been easy, being alone in the middle of … all this."

'All this' was a typically Lexian way of saying her entire world had effectively fallen down around her, decimated by events that were entirely beyond her control. It had happened once before with her parents. That event had scarred her for life, and she really only had one life to scar irreparably.

Lana tried to throw his concern off. "It's been rough, I can't lie to you. But … I'm coping. Considering everything, I think I'm getting off easy." It was a somewhat insensitive joke to Lex, but what else could she say? Sorry that you got poisoned by your bastard of a father, but hey, so glad he's in prison permanently now. By the way, you wouldn't believe the types of cheeses they have in Paris? "I'm sorry." She added quietly.

"Don't be." Lex replied simply.

Lana found herself blinking furiously. She couldn't cry. Not now. "I'm glad you're alive Lex."

He chuckled; the most robust sound he had made so far. "So am I. It would have been inconvenient to manage LuthorCorp from the grave." Despite the gravity ofhis condition, she laughed. "Take care, Lana. I'll be in touch soon."

By the time Lana had swallowed down the emotion that was uncontrollably rearing up inside her, he was gone.

© April 2006


	2. Chapter 2

**Comfort Between Friends**

**By Viv **

**PART TWO**

It was to be a month before she next heard from Lex. Or more accurately, saw him.

Jason had just left her at the banks of the Seine to join his mother for an early lunch in the Latin Quarter, leaving Lana happily strolling along the river, drinking in the atmosphere of the awakening vibrancy around her. Stopping at a cute little café forcoffee, she had just taken out her portfolio to evaluate the shots of the Louvre she had taken the night before when out of the corner of her eye, she spied the confident figure of Lex. He was striding toward her with suchintensity it was as if he had walked like that all the way from Smallville.

"Lex?"

He smiled then – his wonderful, haunting lilt of a smile. "Surprised to see me?" He asked, playful eyes twinkling in the late morning sunshine.

"Oh my god, Lex." Heedless of the small obstacles in her way – on coming traffic, cars and so on – she flew into his arms, forgetting to erect her customary defences.

She had rumpled his beautifully cut and obviously very expensive jacket, and after the initial onrush of excitement had coursed through her, embarrassment set in. She blushed, feeling the heat rise up in her cheeks. "Sorry."

"Not at all." Lex straightened his jacket. His smile had turned roguish, but was still warm and friendly. "I'm not going to complain about a welcome like that." He led her back to her table, taking her arm familiarly in his.

She couldn't explain the churning sensations his touch elicited from her. With that small, comforting gesture, she felt like she had found a piece of home again. It had been a lonely month for Lana, waiting on news from Lex that never came.Excruciatingly, desperately lonely knowing that her whole life had most likely been incinerated by events beyond her control in Smallville.If Jason hadn't been there for her, she didn't know what she would have done.

But try as he might – and he was sweet, in his charmingly roguish way – he couldn't understand her grief over the loss of her friends. Couldn't understand it, because he had never known Chloe and Clark like she had.

But Lex had. And now he was here in Paris. With her.

Staring unblinkingly at Lex as the waiter took his order, she couldn't help but wonder at his miraculous recovery, or of his being alive at all. Lana was sure she hadn't heard the doctors wrong – 1 was an excruciatingly small chance of survival, though obviously not as insignificant to a Luthor than to normal human beings.

He began talking again, pearly white teeth set in a winsome smile, clear blue eyes glistening like the colour of the sky. "Enjoying Paris?"

"Lex, I've missed you." She blurted. Which was not what she had planned to say, at least not right away. There were the customary pleasantries that should have come before, but her mind had obviously decided that those were unnecessary obstacles in their conversation right now.

His eyes darkened like a gathering summer storm in a clear blue sky. "I'm so sorry about Chloe, Lana. It must have been … difficult for you, being so isolated from everything. I'm sorry I wasn't there."

Lana shook her head. He had misunderstood her. "No, it's not that. I mean, I cried over Chloe. I wanted to use the open ended ticket you got me, but I just couldn't come back for another funeral. I … I just couldn't face seeing another person I cared about put in the ground like that, not after Whitney and my parents. And with Clark gone …" Her voice trailed away.

Lana had always found Lex's touch comforting. He must have instinctively known it too, because he gently placed his hand over hers. She found strength in his touch as well as comfort and warmth. It seemed that so much was conveyed between them without any perceptible effort. "I was so worried about you." She confessed, unable to meet his steady gaze. "I'd already lost Chloe ... I'veprobably lost Clark as well. I didn't know what I would have done if I'd lost another friend."

It was heart wrenching the way he smiled at her. She couldn't quite grasp the entirety of the thought that lay behind Lex's enigmatic smile, but it seemed to hint at a myriad of possibilities. The offer of friendship, comfort, solace, and yet something else that simmered constantly between them. Lana would have been lying to herself if she did not admit that something did seem to exist between them that she could not quite bring herself to name. A connection of sorts. Gut wrenchingly real, basic and indefinable. Constant.

"Anyway, I'm glad you're okay." She gave his hand a tight squeeze, falling back into her chair in order to break the intensity of the moment. Brightening a little, she quizzed. "Now tell me what you're doing in Paris? How come you didn't call?"

Taking his cue from her, he bantered. "I was on a business trip to South America, thought I should stop by Paris to pay a friend a visit. See how it was reacting to the wholesome charms of Lana Lang."

They talked of more mundane things after that, the kind of repartee that she used to have with Chloe, and with Clark, before things descended into awkward melodrama between them. She found herself telling him of her first days at school, finding suitable accommodation for herself after the one that the school had arranged was less than satisfactory, the loneliness of the first few weeks living in a city that was not quite her own, not to mention being alienated by her incomprehension of the language. But her life in Paris had turned for the better on the day she met Jason.

"So, does this Jason have a last name?" Lex asked lightly.

"Jason Teague. We met about a month ago, and …" She shrugged somewhat bashfully, not knowing whether Lex really needed to know every little detail of her life. But he seemed genuinely interested, and the keenness of his expression prompted her to continue. "And, it's been going pretty well. Jason was there for me; I don't know what I would have done without him."

Lex nodded in approval. "Then I'm disposed to like him already. Although …" He grinned suddenly then, making his face a lot less serious and more lively than usual. "He better not hurt you in any way, otherwise he'd have to answer to me. You can tell him that for me."

Although she laughed, Lana knew Lex well enough to know that it was entirely likely that he'd have someone check on Jason's background. She was surprised when she found that she didn't actually mind at all. She admitted that it was more comforting knowing there was somebody else besides Nell that was looking out for her in this world.

Glancing at her watch, she was surprised by how quickly the hour had flown by. "Lex, I'm so sorry but I have to get to class. We're doing perspective this afternoon and assignments are going to be handed out, I can't miss it."

He flashed that haunted, crooked smile again. "I wouldn't dream of depriving you of even a second of your education Lana. But I'm not doing to let you go without exacting a dinner with you tonight. I'm sure you'll be the first to admit that not many things could come between dinner with a friend who has just flown 4,000 miles to see them."

Lana found herself flushing with pleasure. Lex had always been capable of outrageous flattery; Lana had always found herself unaccustomed to such urbane sophistry. "It's a date." She replied impishly, before giving him a friendly wave goodbye.

© April 2006


End file.
